Happy Endings - do they float your boat?

[AphroditeMSC]

So...do you like a book to have a final ending once the series or trilogy or whatever is over? Do you like the good guy to win, good triumphing over evil?

Or...

Do you sometimes like the bad guy to escape...to swear revenge, even though you know that no more books will be written... does it feel unfinished and unfair?

Discuss!

 

[Stephen Palmer]

What matters to me is that the ending is realistic.

 

[Mouse]

I don't mind either way! Sometimes I like a happy ending, but other times I don't mind a tragic end, or an open end... Depends on the story.

 

[Aoratos]

I don't mind happy endings, so long as the protagonist has suffered (not just physically). This being said, sad endings are fine too. Just as long as that's what it is - an ending. Personally, I don't like open endings unless there will be more stories. And, as Stephen has already said, it must be realistic.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'd go with Stephen on the realism. An ending where everyone gets their perfect reward, or worse, where the people who don't are squashed out the picture, isn't terribly satisfactory. But also an ending where virtually everyone loses because "life's like that" can easily look cynical in a forced, adolescent way.

As regards the villain promising revenge, I don't mind that. In some ways it's a good way to end the story (or at least this part of the characters' stories) and yet to remind the reader than endings don't have to be completely tidy. That said, I don't really like endings that blatantly set up a sequel. That always feels a bit commercial to me (except when I do it. It's obviously fine then).

 

[Interference]

The ending is where you choose to stop telling the story. I think we've all had a go at extrapolating from a story's end to its actual conclusion and seen more than a few that didn't survive until "ever after".

In principle, I've no objection to a seemingly happy ending where that is the natural place to end in order to round off the story and neatly tie the loose ends.. That they might unravel themselves the moment I type the last full stop is an issue I may choose to return to in the sequel.

 

[Talysia]

I don't mind either way! Sometimes I like a happy ending, but other times I don't mind a tragic end, or an open end... Depends on the story.

This is exactly how I feel about happy endings. To be honest, I prefer my stories to have happy endings, but as long as they fit in with whatever the characters have endured and are realistic, then that's fine with me, too.

 

[HareBrain]

Bittersweet for me. Also, I prefer the ending not to wrapped up too neatly, as though the characters will then be put away in their boxes, the purpose of their entire existence completed.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I agree with Mr. Palmer. I have no issue with heroes losing/dying and villains winning if it makes sense and is realistic. A forced ending (either way) annoys me.

 

[dustinzgirl]

I don't like purposely cruel endings, like in The Mist or some Hitchock.

And I don't like ridiculously happy endings, either.

I like realistic endings, or endings that fit the characters/stories, and endings that are actually endings. I hate cliffhangers.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

An ending where everyone gets their perfect reward, or worse, where the people who don't are squashed out the picture, isn't terribly satisfactory. But also an ending where virtually everyone loses because "life's like that" can easily look cynical in a forced, adolescent way.

My thoughts exactly (although I probably wouldn't have expressed it so well).

What annoys me is that the second sort is so often put forward as more realistic than the other. In real life, all sorts of things happen, good and bad.

I am satisfied with a sad ending if I don't feel the author has cheated by sacrificing logic and characterization to get there. And though I prefer a happy ending, I need to feel that the characters have earned it and that they neither go back to exactly the way things were before (because that would be to undo the events of the story), nor should they be unduly rewarded simply for having survived.

 

[Toby Frost]

Thanks Teresa, nice of you to say so.

I agree, and I can think of an excellent series that was greatly weakened (to my mind) by this tendency. In real life, the point at which you want to end the story goes a long way towards determining the sort of ending. Stop the story at a different point and Napoleon's life is a great victory. At the end of everyone's story the lead character dies, but in truth, that's beside the point.

One of my favourite endings to a film is that of the old western The Wild Bunch. After a vast shootout in which most of the (pretty villainous) protagonists die fighting the (even worse) arch-villain, the survivors go off to fight for good. There's a sense of catharsis there, not just that some people died and some didn't. Scores have been settled, and although not everyone who deserved to live did, the ghosts of the story have been laid to rest. It's that sense of logical satisfaction I like at the end of a story, whether it's in Sam going home, Frodo leaving the Shire, or even Winston loving Big Brother - they all feel right for the stories they're in.

 

[pom]

for me a lot has to do with the way the author writes the characters and how I feel about them. funny enough books that stay with me include mice and men, animal farm and Death of a salesman all cliche classics but with sad disturbing endings that still make me think about them thirty years later.

while reading jordans wheel of time I thought I had a eureka moment round about book nine or ten (they all tended to blur together by that stage), but by then I realised I had little regard for any of the main characters and began rooting for the Dark lord god of ultimate doom and all things bad and wondered whether Jordan was going to surprise us all by demonstrating he had balls of steel and letting the bad guy win.By that stage I had come to wish a pox on all the characters and couldnt help but feel that the world would be a better place without them all.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

f include mice and men, animal farm and Death of a salesman all cliche classics but with sad disturbing endings that still make me think about them thirty years later.

And the fact that the emotions remain years later is why they are classics.

Thinking about it, I tend to like best the books that make me cry in the middle, but leave me with a sense of hope at the end. (And speaking of classics) Even after many years and many readings there are passages in A Christmas Carol that make me weep buckets of tears. Some of it is knowing that some of those lost years and opportunities can never be reclaimed, so that the ending, though joyous, is still a little heart-wrenching. Yet the theme of redemption remains a powerful one.

 

[Boneman]

I have to have a happy ending... don't mind then riding into the sunset and facing an uncertain future, as long as they are together... But I loathe and detest unhappy or nasty endings - I guess it's the human condition to have hope, optimism and positivism, even thought there are those who may prefer the opposite.

It's called fiction because it's made up, so given that there's a choice about how to end it (it's not real life) then I want to have the happy ending, there's enough unhappiness out there already. Strange, though, that my all-time-favourite book is Shogun, which leaves him sitting on a beach after the love of his life has been killed - but he does have hope, a purpose and the possibility of redemption - there's a sequel waiting to happen, shame James Clavell never wrote it... I wonder if his estate would let me have a go at writing it?

 

[Robin Goodfellow]

Depends on the tale. Some stories would be horrible with a happy ending (Death of a Salesman was already mentioned) while others would be a terrible piece if the bad guys won (Who would be reading LOTR if the dark lord won? I would feel cheated) it really depends on if the ending works for the story.

As a rule all comedies should have happy endings, all tragedies should have bad endings.

 

[M. Blaekr]

Whatever makes the most sense as far as all the plots lines coming together. I agree with not making it feel like the preceding events were the character's sole purpose in life. I also agree with the realism.

I find, though, that sad/tragic endings makes me think about the story, more. Remember, though, all true stories end in death, for the story is not over if the character is still alive, no? And sometimes it's not even over after that!

 

[Toby Frost]

Whatever makes the most sense as far as all the plots lines coming together.

Good point. There's a difference between a happy ending and a satisfying one. At the end of 1984, the big plot questions have been answered, the political points behind the book have all been made and Winston's story has reached its end. A happy ending would have prevented this, as well as weakening the book's impact.

I think the point about death doesn't matter too much though. A lot of old fairy stories end with "for the rest of their days": people then knew that everyone died, but it was more how they went that mattered.

Also of course you can die, have a happy ending and satisfy the plot all at once. The Zulu warlord in Allan Quartermain has perhaps the most awesome death ever: he fights an army single-handed, then dies smashing an ancient artefact, which is close to the end of the book and certainly its high point.

 

[Culhwch]

It's that sense of logical satisfaction I like at the end of a story, whether it's in Sam going home, Frodo leaving the Shire, or even Winston loving Big Brother - they all feel right for the stories they're in.

I think this was the first mention of satisfaction - though I think in their own words most everyone was saying the same thing - but the first thing that jumped into my head just reading the title and before I even got into the thread was that I don't care if an ending is happy or sad, so long as it is satisfying.

And I'm with Dusty - I hate needlessly cruel endings. I agree with The Mist, and I think of something like The Departed here as well. Usually it's films that pull this one, I can't think of any novels that have, off the top of my head.

 

[Quokka]

I'd agree with that, Flowers for Algernon certainly isn't a happy ending, but it's a fitting ending for the story up till then. For me the twist ending is a hit and miss thing. If it's done well it's great but if it misses it can really hold back an otherwise good read.